Private Collection - Querelle
by Parfumerie Generale

Querelle is an pretty intense scent with lovely contrast of sweet and bitter accords. to the extent, the mood is pretty dark and it's by no means our tradional vetiver based scent. the openign accords are laden with (sooty) Incense and sharp spices. maybe black caraway. the accord is pungent in a very sharp way at the same time it's beautiful. it takes this scent least an hour to setle down and that whne the game of contrasts begin. it begins with a soft and sweet note of cinnamon..so what was until now a dark scent suddenly shows a bit of sweetness under it's fold..depending on how it wears on one's skin the prominenece of cinnamon and dakr accords of vetiver could vary.
It is indeed a strange scent. strange in the most beautifully challenging way. get it while it's still available...a premium release by Parfumerie Generale.

Reading the reviews below, I can understand the enthusiasm for this very interesting creation. However, as another Basenoter previously mentioned, on the forum, it does have certain similarities to Kouros. I wouldn’t say they are exactly the same but I am finding myself drawing parallels between the two.

Where Kouros is honey sweet and in-your-face, Querelle is darker, dryer, and more subtle and sophisticated. Its darkness reminds me of Dior’s Eau Noire (but with the black caraway and vetiver replacing the immortelle, lavender and indian spices – in other words, not as ghastly) and, at a push, I would say that Querelle is almost a hybrid of these two.

Unfortunately, as I’m neither a big fan of Kouros or Eau Noire, I’ll have to pass.

[Original submission date: 05 July 2008]

No, the novel Querelle by Jean Genet is not about masochistic lust, homosexual rape, blackmail and murder as one reviewer has stated. It is about the aesthetical transition of these aspects into holiness!
It is known that Jean Genet once had been falsly accused of theft as a child. Based on this trauma, he identified himself with what his contemporaries would consider the evil. In his work, he tried to describe the beauty of this with almost religious addiction.

The perfume Querelle has captured exactly this attitude. Yes, it is masculine in a way that it could make one imagine a sweaty sailors body at work. But then, there is also something very "catholic", like clouds of burning incense, myrrh and other narcotizing secret ingredients
wafting through the temple of some esoteric cult, dedicated to transfer the worshippers into religous extasy (though, it is not a churchlike incense like in Messe de Minuit). This contradiction is definetely what makes this fragrance be a thrill.

I wonder what was first: the perfume that required an apropriate name or the concept of a perfume named Querelle?

I would have expected something transgressive, or at least animalic, from a scent named after Genet’s dark novel of masochistic lust, homosexual rape, blackmail, and murder, but that’s not what Querelle delivers. Granted, Querelle projects some of the hyper-masculine swagger embodied in Genet’s characters, but it smells to me more of a gentleman’s club than of a gay leather bar or a brothel full of randy sailors. I realize that the scent itself is more important than the label, but with such a loaded name, I just can’t help wishing for a provocative scent – something along the lines of Muscs Koublaï Khan, Oud Cuir d’Arabie, Kouros, or even Pierre Guillaume’s own Intrigant Patchouli.

Instead, Querelle presents a bundle of bitter aromatic notes and sweet bergamot over a mossy base in a highly traditional spicy fougère accord. It’s the same in-your-face, macho, ‘70s and ‘80s vibe you get in Yatagan, Azzaro pour Homme, or Balenciaga’s Portos. (In fact, Querelle’s scent pyramid overlaps very heavily with Azzaro’s!) It’s an appealing formula, since few scents of this sort are composed nowadays, but I don’t feel that Pierre Guillaume has brought anything new to the table with Querelle. If you like this kind of scent, you can get Azzaro, or the even more daring Yatagan for less than a quarter of Querelle’s niche market price.

Parfumerie Generale Querelle

I am a huge fan of the German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Querelle was his last film. As a film Querelle is some what of a disjointed mess and probably indicative of the state of Fassbinder's mind as he would die of a drug overdose after he completed the film. Pierre Guillaume was inspired by Jean Genet's novel and not the film. Thankfully, M. Guillaume is in much tighter control of his creation and it shows. This is a unique creation built around familiar notes. Right at the top there is an unfamiliar note a deep smell that again reminds me of spice but in a subtle way. This is not the nose tickling spice of pepper or the rounded feel of cardamom this is a beast of a different kind a deep dark feel to it. I had to go to the note list to find out it is black caraway which is combined with a beautiful citrus accord which allows the beginning of this to start in a completely different style.I don't know how difficult it is to source black caraway but I could wish for more perfumers to substitute it in place of the ubiquitous bergamot as the companion to citrus notes, it is that good. The heart of this starts with a hint of cinamon before the real star shows up and that is a beautiful myrrh this creates a rounded and luxurious heart that makes this feel sumptuous on my skin. The base uses traditional chypre components of vetiver and oakmoss but with the myrrh still firmly in place the combination of all three brings this to completeness. Querelle is what can happen when a perfumer chooses to push the boundaries, he can create something unique and something that will not appeal to everybody which come to think of it might be the tie-in to Fassbinder's film after all.

I don't like this much. It smells like a bitter lime, a dry frankincense, and a sour vetiver. The spices impart no sweetness, either. In all, it is dry and unflattering from my viewpoint. I give it respect for uniqueness, but I don't feel drawn to it, either as a feminine perfume or as an atmospheric fragrance.